Here we begin

This is the first posting, Thursday, October 12, 2006. Today, 514 years ago, Columbus made a landfall on Watling's Island in the Bahamas, discovering a populated - though very sparsely - section of the world that was theretofore not part of most of Western Civilization's reckoning. Thanks to him, Western Civilization expanded to the Western Hemisphere. Yes, we call them both by that adjective, in one case meaning Christendom, in the other a physical location.